Knight: A Tale of New Unova
by EmeraldMew
Summary: The League has fallen. King N has won and Unova enters a new age. May contain violence in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Fall

A cold wind ripped across Lacunosa Town, shaking the last stubborn leaves from the trees in Doris Jaboca's yard. Doris held tighter to the monkey bars with her gloved left hand and swung a large stick, her sword, at imaginary pirates with her right.

"Now, Aqua!" Doris called to her equally imaginary simipour to strike the pirates with a blast of water. It must have worked, as the six-year-old smiled in triumph and awkwardly clambered to sit atop the bars without dropping her sword. She gazed at the darkening gray sky and began singing some song she'd picked up in school.

"Dory!" A voice rang out from the house.

Doris pouted but tossed her stick aside and climbed down. It was late fall and the days were getting shorter, leaving less time each afternoon for outdoor play. The sun, light glowing through the overcast sky, was already sinking below Lacunosa's walls. As she ran for the back door, Doris wondered how long it would be until the first snowfall of the season.

She was surprised to find the television still on as she pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into her coat pocket. A quick sniff of the air told her dinner was likely minutes from the table. She slipped out of her coat and hung it on a peg before walking to the dining room.

Neither of her parents were waiting near the half-set table. Instead, her mother was paused halfway between the dining and living rooms, eyes fixed on the TV. Her father sat in his chair in the living room, remote control in hand. Even Night the liepard seemed distracted by whatever was on. Doris's gaze shifted to the screen. A pokémon battle was taking place.

"What's up?" asked Doris. Pokémon competitions were entertaining and all, but she'd never seen her parents take a televised match so seriously. Not getting an answer from the adults she read the words "Pokémon League" on the lower portion of the screen. Well, a battle for Unova's Championship was a bit more understandable than just some average match, she supposed, but something about her parents' expressions seemed too tense.

The camera zoomed in on a beam of red light retracting a defeated pokémon into its poké ball before shifting to the ball's holder. Doris recognized the flaming hair of Champion Alder, who gritted his teeth and bowed his head. The image on the screen zoomed out to show the victorious pokémon and Doris began to understand what was so captivating about this particular battle.

Crackling electricity danced across the tall creature's scales. Doris blinked and compared the sight before her to what she had learned about once in school. A bipedal, black dragon with a cone-shaped tail which charged brilliant, blue lightning stood in the middle of the battlefield. It stomped, spread its wings, and roared. The camera focused on the dragon's face and its narrow, red eyes. A creature Doris knew from stories and fairy tales was standing, breathing, and growling in the middle of the champion's room.

"Zekrom." The voice belonged to the person standing near the legendary dragon. He was a teenager with long, green hair. He placed a hand on Zekrom's leg. Zekrom's trainer? The teenager nodded at Zekrom and stepped forward to address the defeated Champion.

"It's over, Alder." The teen's speech was quick but clear. "Thanks to my friend, Zekrom, I have shown that I far outmatch even you, the Champion. Your title wasn't enough to stop me or my ideals."

"N," said Alder.

"We both put our beliefs on the line in that match, and by the rules of this world that uses pokémon as tools to decide disputes I emerged victorious. Do not say anything more."

"N!" another voice shouted. The shadow of another person fell within the camera's view from the direction of the room's dooway.

"I've been waiting for you." The teenager, "N" apparently, was addressing the newcomer. "Zekrom can sense the Light Stone in your possession. So the decision will come down to the two heroes as I envisioned. This is an unsuitable battlefield for our destined duel. Please, wait a moment." N walked to the center of the room and raised his voice. "From the ground, rise up! Castle of Team Plasma!"

Rumbling and crashing drowned out the young man's next words. The scene on the screen shook and went fuzzy as the camera's signal was interrupted.

 _Beep beep beep beep!_

"Ah, the food!" Doris looked up from the static-covered screen as though broken from a trance by her mother leaving to stop the timer and retrieve the food from the oven.

"Zekrom... Is that really Zekrom?" asked Doris. She looked between her parents and waited for an answer. Zekrom. One of the two dragons used by Unova's twin founders. It and its own twin, Reshiram, had split apart from a singular dragon when the founders disagreed about the future of Unova. According to the stories, it had once returned to fight alongside one founder's descendant in battle against Reshiram, which had sided with another decedent during a civil war which had nearly destroyed the region.

It was also supposed to appear again. According to legend, Zekrom would appear before a hero deemed worthy of it in order to decide the future of Unova once more in a time of crisis.

Was there a crisis? Some dispute the legendary dragon itself needed to return to settle? Did that mean N was its chosen hero who it deemed worthy of choosing Unova's path forward?

Was that why her parents remained silent with their lips pressed tight and eyebrows furrowed?

Doris's mother spoke first, the here and now having interrupted the television's spell.

"Yes. At least it looked like how Zekrom has always been painted." She placed a steaming casserole dish on the table. The scent of hot chicken and broccoli would normally have whetted Doris's appetite but she remained distracted by the strain in her mother's voice.

"Then... that..." Doris ordered her thoughts. "What's wrong? And if there's Zekrom, where's Resh –"

"We're coming to you live from the air above the Pokémon League Headquarters atop Victory Road." The sudden return of the broadcast caused all four members of the Jaboca household to turn their heads back toward the screen. "In the last few minutes this... giant... structure appeared out of the ground and surrounded the league building," said a breathless reporter.

The camera zoomed out. Giant was an understatement. A building, a castle, had appeared apparently out of the ground like a plant and towered over the league building on three sides. Moreover, it stretched far to the east and west of the central structure beyond the view on the screen. The impossible castle was crafted of gray stone and enormous black ramps that struck outwards and downwards from the building's sides into the crumbling outer walls of the Pokémon League.

"The challenger... no, the new champion is going up one of the ramps," continued the reporter as the camera focused in on N's tiny figure on top of a large black dragon, his white jacket and pants standing out in stark contrast even through the dust still settling around the scene. A massive doorway opened and the dragon which stood at the top of the ramp strode through, its trainer on its shoulder. Moments later another figure with brown hair came into view, racing across the ramp to follow N.

"Well, they're certainly... flashy," said Doris's mother.

"It'll work, though," said her father despondently. "They've already gotten a lot of support. Even folks who really should know better."

"They?" asked Doris.

Doris's mother smiled and sighed. "Team Plasma. I don't know if you've heard much about them. We were hoping they wouldn't get this far, so we decided not to worry you." Doris pouted at being left out of important things. She was six! Over halfway to being old enough to train pokémon and journey through Unova.

"Team Plasma... says they want to make humans and pokémon be separated." Doris turned her head so one ear nearly touched her shoulder as she contemplated what that meant.

"Wait, what?" she finally asked.

"They don't want humans to train pokémon or live with them in their homes. The idea is that the cities and towns will be for people and pokémon will all live in the wild," said her mother.

"But why? That's silly." Doris felt her cheeks turning red with frustration. What about her own journey in four years?

"They claim it's for the good of the pokémon," said Doris's father. "You see, some of them have been convinced by that Ghetsis fellow and this kid they've been calling their king that pokémon and humans are bad for each other and that everyone needs to release their pokémon."

Night growled.

"What? They can't do that, right? We don't have to give up Night!" They weren't bad for Night and Night wasn't bad for them.

"Of course they can't," said Doris's mother quickly, shooting a warning glance in her husband's direction. "They're just a particularly loud group. They can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to."

"Cause if they just asked a psychic pokémon they could find out pokémon and humans are good for each other," Doris insisted. Psychic pokémon had no trouble communicating their feelings to humans or passing along those of other pokémon. "Or what about the more animal-like ones? If they've been with humans for so long, they might not do well in the wild."

"On their own, this Team Plasma bunch can't force anything at all to happen," said Doris's mother.

"Of course, now their king is using an honest to Zekrom, well, _Zekrom_ ," said her father.

King. Again with the mention of a king. It sounded so fantastic, a king like hadn't been around since _old_ , old times. Not in Unova, anyway. Their king was using Zekrom.

"Wait..." said Doris. That meant the teenager with Zekrom was a king? A king who was also a part of this Plasma group? Why would Zekrom bless someone who wanted to make her family lose Night and prevent her from ever being a trainer?

"That will certainly turn a lot of heads that had been undecided," said her mother, "but it still can't force anything." She walked between Doris and Night in order to pet Night on the head. The liepard purred and nuzzled into the welcoming hand.

That was right. The dragons weren't always right. That's why there were two of them in the first place, after all. They split apart from one dragon to fight for the ideals and truths of the disagreeing founders. If Team Plasma's and N's feelings had awakened Zekrom to join their cause, that was still only one of the two dragons and one of the two heroes who thought this scenario made any sense. And even then, if the dragons did take up different sides and fight, a pokémon battle was just a pokémon battle. It was a contest of the pokémon and trainers' skill, not a deciding factor of whose opinions were right. Her parents had taught her that.

"The problem is Zekrom is a powerful rallying symbol and a lot of people are falling for the idea that the time has come for a new chosen one to reshape Unova," said Doris's father. "We're doomed."

"Doomed is a bit strong, dear," said Doris's mother in a don't-unnecessarily-upset-our-daughter tone. "It's too early to despair." She paused. "Early enough to worry, but too early to despair." Doris's lip quivered. She pointedly sat down next to night and petted her shoulders. The liepard purred softly and switched her tail from side to side.

The television feed crackled with static once more and Doris barely made out her mother's whispered next words.

"It's always too early until it's too late."

"It... ooks ..ike we're getting visuals from inside the castle. There's no sound, but the challen... Champion is standing in a... Is that a throne room?" The announcer's voice sounded stunned.

N stood before an ornate chair. He seemed to have just stood up and he was smiling broadly. The other teenager, the brown-haired one, ran into the camera's view. N's smile widened and his mouth moved quickly.

What was he saying?

Intense light filled the screen a second later. The announcer stumbled over observations and let loose a word Doris had never heard before and that her mother likely wouldn't want her to repeat.

The glow faded and a second dragon, tall, white, and covered in feathers now stood between the two teenagers.

"Reshiram."

Doris didn't know whether it was the announcer or someone in her own house that said the dragon's name.

N's lips moved.

Within a second a streak of black collided with the white wyvern. Zekrom hurled its body against its twin, sparkling with blue lightning. Reshiram snarled and a fireball formed in the front of its mouth before erupting into a stream of flame aimed at Zekrom.

"Viewers of Unova, a battle of heroes takes place before you," said a voice from the TV, although it was not the voice of the announcer.

Night bristled.

"All now viewing, you are witness to the pivotal moment of our time. Our king now faces his rival. On the side of the worn and time-tested truths we have come to grovel before unthinkingly, Reshiram's chosen one intends to leave our region stagnant."

The television's feed swiveled away from the dragons to show the brown-haired trainer, face locked into a determined frown as it was lit up by the red and blue energy from the battle.

"On the other, chosen by Zekrom for his idealism and great vision of the future, our King N, destined to restore Unova to greatness. To wipe away the mistakes of the League. To create a new Unova where people and pokémon will reach their full potential, independent of each other!"

"Humans. Humans and pokémon," corrected Doris automatically as the camera swung back to the young king. She hated when people would casually use the word to mean exclusively humans.

"I, Ghetsis Harmonia, am honored to speak to you all at this historic moment."

Draconic energies flashed across the screen. Sudden roars and booms and clashes and thuds overrode Ghetsis's voice as the noise from the battlefield sounded through the speakers. Night jumped at the sudden noise, her claws flashing. She left a puncture in the cushion with her left forepaw when she landed, then settled back into her place as though she had never been startled. Doris reached over to pet her between her shoulders.

It was over in a few seconds. The dragons stared at each other for a brief moment and Reshiram crumpled to the floor. Zekrom roared in triumph as it had done against Alder.

The screen went blank.

Silence filled the room until the screen buzzed back to a shot of the castle exterior.

"It looks like our feed was taken over for a bit there, folks," came the announcer's shaky voice. "That... was... something. Wasn't it?"

"Oh for the love of –" Doris's mother began.

"They can't take Night away, right?" asked Doris, alarmed.

Her mother smiled reassuringly.

"No. They can't. Come on. Supper's been getting cold."

Doris breathed a deep sigh in an effort to expel her concerns. She was hungry. That was true right now. It was also true that N had won a battle. A pokémon battle. Just a contest of skill and strength, not something that determined who was right. At any rate, there wasn't anything she could do about things and Night was fine.

Her father clicked the power button on the remote control and the castle faded from the screen. He stood and made his way into the dining room to join the rest of his family. Food now, worry later. It was too early to despair.

Soon enough conversation at the dinner table returned to normal. Doris excitedly explained what she had learned that day in school. Her father shared some new jokes he'd heard. Her mom laughed along and added her own humor to the mix. Night licked up the remaining chicken broth added to her kibble after the meal and purred. Nothing drastic had changed.

. . .

That night Doris couldn't sleep so she crept out of her bedroom. She heard the sound of the television on so she tiptoed down the hall to see what her parents were watching.

In place of the ten o'clock news, no, not "in place of" Doris realized when she saw the news logo at the corner of the screen, was the green-haired king standing in front of the cracked Pokémon League building before a shiny, gold podium. Seven older men stood around and behind him wearing fancy robes like Doris was used to seeing in movies set in fantasy countries or long ago ages.

"...time for the League to fall. We have already had many, many volunteers come forward to do what is right and release their pokémon from confinement within the PC storage system!" N said.

On his final word a swarm of pokémon burst forth from the broken doors behind the eight figures. Birds, bugs, ghosts, and other sorts of flight-capable pokémon soared as a group into the air, taking their leave in all directions. N laughed with joy in the center of the noisy leave-taking. The green-haired man behind him who wore a red eye-patch over one eye smiled.

Doris felt a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold autumn weather.


	2. Chapter 2: New Lacunosa

Whew. Sorry about the long delay between the first and second chapters, folks. Who's ready for chapter two?

* * *

Giallo watched as King N paced around an otherwise empty hallway of the Plasma Castle, muttering so quickly to himself that Giallo couldn't quite make out the king's individual words. The sage stroked his beard and stepped forward from the doorway to join the king in the hall. He cleared his throat.

"Is something troubling you, my Lord N?" asked Giallo.

N stopped walking at the sudden awareness of the sage's presence. He turned to look at Giallo.

"I had hoped New Unova would be united by now," said N.

Giallo took a deep breath and nodded his agreement. "Some people are resistant to the will of fate," he said somberly. "In time, we will reunite and free them from their old-fashioned ways."

"I am going to visit Virbank and Nacrene personally to convince the resistance to cease their fighting. I don't care if the sages are against it. Pokémon are being hurt and I know I can convince them to change." Giallo's encouraging smile dropped as he wondered whether the king had heard him.

"I understand your desire, Lord N. Zinzolin and Ghetsis agreed with me that you should go during the meeting, but the other four sages either felt it would endanger your safety or that you are more needed in central Unova at the moment."

N blinked.

"Ghetsis voted _for_ me going in person? He told me he was against the idea when he relayed the sages' decision. He said he was worried for my well-being. When I told him I cared more about the pokémon being forced to fight than myself he told me that if I was hurt by the resistance it could risk the stability of New Unova."

"He probably thought it more prudent to merely provide the consensus we reached than trouble you with the details," Giallo reasoned aloud. He stepped closer to the king and allowed the reassuring smile to return to his lips. "Please be patient for now, my lord. The knights are doing everything they can to bring the resistance in without pokémon casualties."

N frowned.

"Knights... I need to find the formula to make the day the knights aren't needed happen sooner."

...

Lacunosa Town had always moved like clockwork. The citizens of the walled town easily adjusted to events that would otherwise interrupt daily routine. When the Pokémon Center lost its League funding and closed its doors, the people of Lacunosa adjusted. When Team Plasma's rule of the League expanded to rule of Unova's entire government, people adjusted. Those who kept their pokémon despite the dirty looks eventually found stored ones had simply vanished from the PC. When they objected to this, they were in turn met with questions about how long they had ignored the stored pokémon and how long it took to even notice their absence. Soon access to the storage system was removed entirely, followed swiftly by the revocation of trainer's licenses and laws that made keeping pokémon illegal.

Still, life went on as life does in times of change. The children of Lacunosa Town still attended school and their parents still went to their jobs, provided their jobs had nothing to do with the manufacturing of poké balls or similar businesses. The new curfew meant nothing to people who had already spent their lives making sure they were home before dark so the fabled monster of the Giant Chasm would not spirit them away for a snack. Tucked behind its walls in the northeast corner of Unova, Lacunosa Town remained free of the strife that bubbled up elsewhere in the region. The more things changed, the more Lacunosa showed how it earned its motto: Methodical and Orderly.

Doris was most struck with how quickly things settled into their new ways. It felt as though one night she was dreaming about her upcoming pokémon journey only for the morning light to bring about a total rejection of such foolhardy fantasy. Her tenth birthday came and went with no more fanfare than any other anniversary of her birth, and she did not expect anything more. She wished she could have... but no, that was wrong of her to think. Traveling around imprisoning wild animals when she had no proper knowledge or training to handle the creatures would be cruel. Besides, it would interfere with her schooling. How else would she have encountered such thrilling works as _Collector Neglector: Why Ordinary People Shouldn't Raise Pok_ _é_ _mon_?

Her parents often advised that she keep her head down and avoid voicing any opinions that could be disagreeable, such as missing the liepard that once lived in their home and wondering about how she was doing now. She should pretend not to notice the occasional braviary or unfezent flying in the distance because watching it for too long could lead to trouble. When it was possible to avoid members of Team Plasma, she should do so, and she should answer their questions as concisely and honestly as possible if she had to encounter them.

They were scared of Team Plasma.

At school Team Plasma and the king were praised at the start of every day for their actions in bringing about a better world for people across Unova. The teachers smiled, some even with enthusiasm, and told their students that the best thing for every New Unovan child to do was work hard to restore and maintain New Unova's greatness as the center for human innovation and culture. It was even possible, though unlikely, that particularly impressive students may be chosen for training as knights for Team Plasma. Knights were chosen for being uniquely skilled and thus allowed the rare privilege of using pokémon to defend New Unova from threats, both external and internal. Knights. The word itself sounded so heroic and romantic. They were the ones to truly bring peace and prosperity to the region. Of course, you weren't supposed to _want_ to be a knight. You were selected by your virtues for the status.

They taught her to love Team Plasma.

Doris felt her stomach tighten whenever she tried to compare how her parents and the school encouraged her to feel.

She felt the same uncomfortable sensation now as she stood on a bridge overlooking a street where three knights, identifiable by their uniforms which resembled medieval armor emblazoned with the Plasma Shield on the chest, were gathered around the door to old man Wilson's house. Doris stared, transfixed. The uniforms were what the whole team had worn back when Team Plasma first started out but she'd never seen anyone dressed in the knight attire so close before. It felt somehow fake, like she'd accidentally walked into a fantasy story where knights and maidens and adventures were the norm, only warped and twisted with the sensation of having done something to be in deep trouble because you weren't supposed to see knights around these parts unless you had done something to earn their presence. She brushed the feeling aside as best she could. They weren't at her door, after all.

"Wha'daya think he did?" whispered a tall boy with glasses who was also observing the scene from the bridge. Doris knew his name was Alan or Alex or something like that but she had rarely spoken with him because he was a grade ahead of her.

"Dunno yet," said a girl with pigtails from Doris's right side. Jess shared her classes with Doris. She rocked forward onto her tiptoes as though hoping the slight height increase it afforded would grant her answers.

"Come on," whined a smaller boy a year or two younger than Doris. "If we're late to school we'll get in trouble. Especially hanging out _here_." It was clear to everyone listening that the emphasis was less about the specific location than the events the school-age group was observing from there.

"Oh don't be a baby, Nick," said the boy with glasses. "I wanna see how this plays out."

Doris felt inclined to agree with Nick. This didn't strike her as an appropriate spectator sport. But she couldn't seem to make her mouth move or look away from the knights. It was just so odd. Knights. Here. In peaceful, boring Lacunosa Town, so far from the disorder of the southern portion of New Unova. She noticed her mouth feeling dry and licked her lips.

On the street below the bridge two of the knights vanished beyond Mr. Wilson's front door. Minutes ticked by without the pair emerging. Doris shifted her weight as she tried to convince herself to just move on from the scene. As she began to suggest this to the other students the remaining visible knight leaned against the large car in which the trio had arrived and glanced upward. He waved a hand toward the bridge and made eye contact with the group of kids, his face unreadable.

At once the gathered group of onlookers stiffened. None of them were quite sure what they were supposed to do. Nick was about to bolt but the boy with glasses grabbed his hand, more aware than his younger brother that running would likely lead to more trouble. He waved back shakily with his free hand and shrugged apologetically.

"Get to school," shouted the knight. He laughed to himself when the kids jumped in surprise.

Doris and the other kids breathed a collective sigh of relief and began turning toward the west side of the bridge. As they began walking, Doris glanced back to see one of the other knights emerging from the house. This knight was carrying a transparent tank with a plastic lid in her hands. Doris paused, causing Jess to bump into her from behind and look as well. Something small, yellow, and fuzzy was moving about inside the container.

"A joltik," Doris whispered. Jess gasped audibly and the two boys paused and looked back as well.

The knight placed the container holding the bright yellow bug into the back of the car and strapped it into place as two other figures walked out from Mr. Wilson's house. Old man Wilson, hands cuffed behind his back, was being roughly prodded forward by the other knight.

The knight who had been outside the whole time rolled his eyes and shouted up to the bridge again. "I thought I told you to get to where you're _supposed to_ _be_! Do you need _an escort_?"

"We're going, we're going!" Doris called out, quickly redirecting her eyes to the bridge in front of her.

"No, help!" old man Wilson shouted up at the children, eyes wide. "I didn't know a joltik had gotten in! I'm innocent!"

"Move along, kids." The knight crossed his arms and took a single warning step toward the stairs leading up to the bridge.

"R-right away, sir!" said the boy with glasses. He gripped Nick's hand harder and tugged the younger boy along. Doris and Jess followed suit, glancing back only once each.

Doris felt her stomach knot. She reminded herself that she didn't know what had actually happened. A pokémon was in Mr. Wilson's house. She was just a passerby with no knowledge of whether it had been there on its own, somehow ignoring the repel spray or if Mr. Wilson was indeed guilty of keeping the joltik there.

 _Let the knights sort that out. That's their job_ , she thought, trying to ignore the old man's pleas of innocence behind her as they were cut off by a car door slamming shut. She tried to shake off the look she'd seen in his eyes. Someone who looked that frightened... Doris felt a twinge of guilt and suppressed her desire to help the distressed man.

 _If he's innocent they'll find evidence for it and let him go. Otherwise, he wasn't innocent. It's nothing I can be expected to deal with. I don't_ know _what happened._

The four kids crossed the end of the bridge and Alan or Alex or whatever his name was let out a whoop.

"What _was_ that? Did you _see_ that?" he asked. The other three huffed and puffed to catch their breaths instead of answering the rhetorical question.

"Is old man Wilson gonna go to jail?" Nick asked his brother.

"He had a pokémon! Can you believe it?" The older boy continued seemingly without hearing Nick. "What was he gonna do with it, d'ya think?"

"He said he didn't know it was there, though," Jess pointed out. She bit her lip.

"Oh come on. _Of course he said that_ , stupid. Do you really think three knights just go knocking on random doors without a reason? He must have known it was there or the knights wouldn't have had enough to go on to even check!"

"They can, though," said Doris. "Check on anywhere they want without having to say a reason, I mean."

"Without having to _say_ a reason, dummy. Of course they have an actual reason or they'd be wasting their time going _everywhere_!" What's-his-Al's face lit up with excitement. "It's not like a pokémon would want to go past all the spray to get to the middle of town. What do you think he wanted with it?"

"Maybe it was his. From before," Jess reasoned aloud.

"Oh, sure, go for the boring option," said Al. "Use some imagination." Doris and Jess exchanged confused glances and the older boy rolled his eyes sardonically.

"An old geezer wanting to spend time with his old pet is just too dull and heartwarming. Sure, it's what probably happened. But just imagine!" Al's smile widened on the last word. "Like, he could have been hoping to use it to eat a bunch of electricity to cause blackouts or something cool like that."

It was Doris's turn to roll her eyes. "One joltik wouldn't be enough to cause a blackout even if it had the biggest appetite a joltik ever had."

"How would _you_ know?" asked Al. Doris knew he didn't mean any more by the comment than annoyance at her shutting down his fantasy but she felt her heart skip a beat. She really shouldn't know something along those lines, should she?

"Think of the size of it, Alex," said Jess. "Something that tiny couldn't eat the electricity of _a house_." Doris let go of her held breath and Alex pouted. Doris mentally thanked Jess for both the explanation and the clarification of Al's name.

"Are you sure? Well, maybe he was gonna train it to attack people."

"Why are you so excited about this?" asked Jess.

"Because everything is booooooring and some unassuming old dude turning out to be some sort of rebel would be awesome," said Alex. "And, hey, knights were involved. Maybe I'm right."

"Maybe," Doris conceded, "but, I don't know, I just really don't think we should be talking about this." She nodded toward her watch to indicate that they'd be late soon.

Alex's bravado faltered for a moment. "Goody-two-shoes," he murmured. He started walking toward the school building again, however. Quickly. "Come on, bro! Hurry it up!"

The quartet of children continued to the school in silence, save for the occasional half-laugh-half-pant from Alex. Although they arrived before the bell the security guard gave them a disdainful glare as they passed through the door into the entrance hall and muttered something about carelessness and cutting it close under his breath just loud enough for all four students to hear.

...

Class began as usual with the Pledge of Loyalty to King N and New Unova. Doris mumbled the words along with her classmates, but her mind was elsewhere. Her heart was still beating with excitement over the memory of the small, yellow bug as it crawled around its tank. It was the closest she'd been to a pokémon in three-and-a-half years, give or take a few months. Something inside her rumbled and shook with the urge to be near it, to pet it, to let it crawl up her arm. People used to do things like that. That sort of behavior would probably only lead to her receiving an electric shock, of course. The joltik probably wasn't too happy to be cooped up in a human's home.

 _Why_ did _Mr. Wilson have it in his house?_

The older man's face flashed across Doris's memory as she mouthed the last words of the pledge and sank into her seat.

He'd looked terrified.

Doris shook her head and took out her pen to take notes on Mr. Reed's lecture. The teacher began to drone about the Icirrus Release, a mass liberation of pokémon by the residents of Icirrus City that happened a month after King N defeated the old league. The way he told it seemed different somehow from what Doris vaguely remembered seeing on television at the time but it was possible that she just remembered it wrong. She'd been a little kid after all.

 _If he knew it was there, then that's on him. If he was innocent, they'll figure that out._

Doris realized she'd not heard part of what Mr. Reed said and quickly picked up copying his words where she'd tuned back into class.

 _It has nothing to do with me_ , she told herself firmly.

The beep of the intercom being turned on caused Mr. Reed to slow his lecture to a brief halt.

"Francine Wilson to the front office now please. Francine Wilson to the front office. Thank you," said the slightly distorted voice of one of the school's office staff.

Doris's stomach felt as though a large rock had settled in it. Francine _Wilson_. Lacunosa was certainly small enough that it was very likely to not be a coincidental sharing of a last name. It could, however, easily be a coincidental circumstance that made the front office call on someone related to the old man who'd had a pokémon in his house.

Right?

Mr. Reed resumed his lesson as though there had been no interruption. Doris fidgeted in her seat and turned her pen in her hand, no longer taking notes. The lump in her stomach churned uncomfortably and she knew she would be distracted for the long haul at this point.

 _Is this even related to that? Did whatever Wilson did involve his family too? Or is Francine being called as a witness or something? Is she in trouble? I kinda know her now that I think about it. I've seen her at lunch. I think she's in the same class as Alex._

Doris twirled the pen between her fingers. She noticed herself breathing faster.

 _I mean, this could be completely unrelated to what her... grandfather? uncle? did with that joltik. And either way, it's not about me._

 _Still..._

Curiosity inched its way in where her discomfort had been. She knew she was only a hallway or two away from the front office. Just a glimpse might be able to tell her whether this was related to the morning's incident.

 _Or it might not tell me anything. What am I supposed to see? A girl walking into a school office? Knights lined up at the door like there's some sort of inquisition going on? A closed door because all I'd see anyway is just that?_

Mr. Reed continued talking.

 _Well, if I don't see anything, I probably_ won't _see anything. And it's not like I'm paying attention anyway..._ Doris let her hand drop into her bag to remove a tissue. She pressed it to her nose and raised her hand.

"Miss Jaboca?" said Mr. Reed.

"Uh... I have a nosebleed. May I be excused to the bathroom?" asked Doris. She hoped her voice sounded more natural to her class and teacher than it did to herself.

"Yes, yes," said Mr. Reed. "Just hurry back as soon as it lightens up enough to deal with in class."

Doris was glad her hand was positioned over her face to hide her brief smile as Mr. Reed scribbled out a hall pass. Doris took it with her free hand and jogged out the door, turning down the hall toward the bathrooms.

Which happened to also be the corner toward the front office.

Doris felt her shoulders loosen as soon as she was in the hallway. It was empty even of the occasional teachers who would check hall passes, who must have been making their rounds elsewhere in the building. Her quickened heart rate now was not from anticipation but from triumph.

She walked past the bathrooms and pressed herself against the wall to peak around the corner before turning. The coast was clear. So was the next hallway. Doris eyed the security camera mounted near the ceiling warily. Was anyone actually watching that? It was too late to back out, she told herself. She only needed to be at the corner at the end of this hall to be able to get the office in view. If she didn't see anything unusual then she'd go back and assume the mystery wasn't anything important after all.

The door was in sight and it was closed. Doris's body sank and she let out a sigh. There was nothing to see. Even if there had been, she'd probably missed it sitting in the classroom. Even stretching her neck didn't allow her to see any more of what was in the office than a small portion of a bookshelf against a tan wall through the tiny vertical window on the door.

How long could she wait before she was gone too long or spotted by a teacher? Doris turned her head back to the hallway she was in to make sure no one had appeared behind her. She straightened her back and pouted.

 _I'll give it to the count of ten. One, two, three... four... five..._ She glanced behind her again, then looked back. _Six... sev-_

Something moved into the view through the small window. It was someone's arm covered in a thick, light blue sleeve that ended above the elbow to reveal a black sleeve beneath it like a knight's uniform. Doris gasped and pressed herself into the wall.

 _There really is a knight here. In the office old man Wilson's relative was called to. This can't be coincidence. And they're a_ knight _, not just some low level Plasma enforcer._ Doris looked around the corner again. Maybe she was mistaken and just saw what she wanted to see.

The sleeve was still visible in the small window and still unmistakably that of a knight of Team Plasma.

 _What do I do now? This still isn't any of my business and I didn't really have a plan for if I saw anything._ Doris berated herself for following curiosity's siren call. _Calm down. Just go back to class... Everything will be sorted out and I'll know for sure whether anything happens because I see Francine Wilson at lunch all the time._

 _What do I do if something does happen?_

 _No. Just worry about myself and go back to class._

Doris looked down at the crumpled hall pass in her hand. Would it matter that she'd squeezed it into a ball in her palm? She backed down the hallway, away from the front office and jogged back through the hallways.

She ducked into the bathroom instead of returning to class. As soon as she closed the door behind her she collapsed into a squat on the floor and hugged herself. She focused on shutting down her racing thoughts and slowing her breathing.

Why was she so scared?

When Doris felt she was calm enough to stand she slowly rose to her feet and leaned over the sink. Something was happening. But it wasn't anything she could do anything about. She just had to go about her life and keep her head down. She'd learn more in time or she wouldn't. She just had to go back to class.

Doris realized she was still clutching the tissue in her other hand and discarded it in the waste basket by the sink. She took a few more deep breaths and gave herself one last look in the mirror. She looked pale, but otherwise normal.

Doris opened the door and walked into the hall.

And nearly bumped into a man in a knight uniform.


	3. Chapter 3: Worrywart

Doris stood quietly in place, waiting for the knight to talk first.

When he didn't, she managed to mumble the word "B-bathroom" and shakily held out the hall pass she now wished looked significantly less crumpled.

"Oookaaay..." said the knight. He raised a light brown eyebrow. Doris felt her cheeks go red. He was wondering why she was explaining in the first place. He didn't care.

"It-it's just that... well... it's just we don't usually see knights. Around here. I-I mean at school." Why couldn't she stop herself from talking?

The knight's expression softened. "I'm doing a guest lecture for the sixth graders. First year we're doing this."

Doris felt herself breathing again and realized that she hadn't been. Had she just made herself look suspicious?

"Uh... you're dismissed?" said the knight. Doris felt the breath that had just returned to her lungs slide out through her nose all at once. She nodded and hurried in the direction of her classroom, looking back just long enough to see the knight continue down the hall.

When she returned to class Doris more collapsed than sat back in her seat. For a few seconds she couldn't even hear her own thoughts. Just silence. But the sensation passed in a moment and she noticed the room around her again. Mr. Reed had moved on to a later event and was beginning to wrap up the social studies lecture to move on to math. Doris shuffled the appropriate workbooks to and from the desk's interior and top and let her thoughts return.

The knight was there for a lecture. He probably didn't have anything to do with the Wilsons at all aside from maybe being involved in the old man's arrest because, and _only_ because, he'd been in town anyway! That would make sense. It was a coincidence that Fran had to go to the office after all! Or maybe it wasn't but maybe it was just something innocuous like her parents letting her know what had happened to her grandpa or uncle or whatever the old man was to her.

 _But shouldn't something like that wait until after school?_

Doris chewed on her tongue. Maybe Fran just forgot homework or lunch or something and one of her parents delivered it to the office. Maybe... maybe it did have to do with Mr. Wilson's arrest but it was just a quick check up to make sure his family wasn't hurt by whatever he did.

 _This is stupid_ , thought Doris. _I hate this. I shouldn't be scared of the knights. They're the_ good _guys. People aren't supposed to be afraid of the good guys._

Doris noticed her nose tingling and the beginnings of tears forming. She tried to blink it off before the other kids could notice she was being a crybaby again. What would _they_ think she was crying about anyway? Math? Yeah, them thinking she was crying because she couldn't handle math sounded about right. She rubbed at her eyes to try to hide the tears and took a shaky deep breath.

Giggles to her left informed her that she'd been seen crying. Again.

She rubbed her eyes harder and hoped against hope that they'd forget about it by lunch break.

…

Doris's luck held and by lunch she was able to sit quietly at the edge of a table without anyone bringing up her tears. Although she knew it was most likely because her tears probably didn't warrant continued attention, she couldn't help but think this may have in part been because the sixth graders were chattering excitedly about how a knight came to their class. Doris couldn't hear the older kids from where she was but she could easily see Alex, practically standing instead of sitting at the lunch bench, leading the storytelling session those seated nearby were devouring more than their food.

She could also see the girl she recognized as Fran Wilson seated among the sixth graders like nothing was out of place. Doris sighed in relief. She was no longer itching to run over to the sixth grade area of the lunchroom for details. Instead she let her shoulders fall and concentrated on the food in her own lunchbox and listened to her own classmates' chatter. It mostly centered on a popular cartoon about a team of heroic knights. Not the Plasma kind, the kind from olden-days, although like the modern Team Plasma they would liberate magical creatures – none of which seemed to be an actual pokémon from what Doris could tell – from humans and quell the dangers posed by evil spies lurking in the midst of society. They were also lead by a brave, magical king with long, green hair. Doris sometimes wondered if King N acted at all like King Uno in the show.

Doris squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as one of her classmates recited one of King Uno's commonly used lines: "If you're afraid of the good guys, that's the first sign you're a bad guy. Those who believe in what's right have nothing to fear."

The sixth graders had been excited enough about their visitor that Doris and the other fifth graders easily finished their lunch before the older kids, allowing Doris to pass by the group on her way to dispose of her used napkin and empty juice box. She caught a closer look of Fran's face. The girl was smiling but it looked forced and she looked pale. Should she talk to her? What would she even say?

"Yo, you saw them this morning, too!" Alex's voice cut through the air. Doris stopped and looked around but it was clear that Alex was addressing her.

"Uh..."

"I mean she's not gonna add anything I haven't already told ya, but she was there by Old Man Wilson's house too!" Doris noticed Fran stiffen.

"Yeah. I pass it on the way to school," said Doris. She tried not to make eye contact with Fran. Looking elsewhere did not help, however, as she only saw more and more sets of eyes fixed on her.

"So he's not exaggerating? There were really _three_ knights?" asked a girl with dark hair.

"I... I think?" She wracked her memory and recalled the one stationed outside who had shouted at them and the two who went in to retrieve Mr. Wilson and the joltik. "No, wait. Four. There was one who'd been inside before we got there who walked out with..." Doris let her voice trail off and glanced at Fran, whose smile had faded.

Now that she thought about it, the man who had met her in the hall looked very much like the one who had pushed the handcuffed Mr. Wilson toward the car.

"And you're the one who knew what the pokémon was called, right?" More eyes turned to Doris. She pulled her arms in closer to her body, which was impressive as they were already tightly glued to her sides.

"Y-yeah. It was just a joltik. They used to be pretty common household pests..." Was it really that odd for her to know what a joltik was? "It's not like I'm going to forget what it's called just because I haven't seen one in years, you know?" said Doris. "That would be like forgetting elephants were a thing because you only went to Nimbasa Zoo once when you were six."

"I mean, yeah, but..." One of the girls started, swallowed, then lowered her voice, "My parents say you shouldn't say their names. They make me pay a dime if I say any." Some of the other kids nodded along. Others smirked and giggled. At the thought of breaking rules? Or at plans of telling on her?

Doris frowned. "My parents never said anything like that." They didn't say much about pokémon, now that she thought about it, and she couldn't recall them saying any pokémon's name in years, but they never suggested pokémon names were like swears or anything.

Of course, she couldn't remember now if she'd ever said the name of a pokémon species around her parents in years either.

She squeezed her napkin and juice box tighter in her right hand. Looking around, Doris came to the discomforting realization that she was surrounded by curious students.

"What's going on here?"

Doris turned to see one of the sixth grade teachers approaching. She was either saved or in trouble. She squeezed her eyes shut and suppressed the urge to run.

"Alex was talking about the pokémon he saw this morning," one of the sixth graders offered up a little too quickly, pointing in Alex's direction as she spoke.

"No-not just the pokémon. The knights too. They were so cool and..." Alex's shoulders slumped when he saw the teacher's eyes narrow. "A-anyway Doris was there too. It wasn't something you see every day so I thought..." He let the sentence drop. Doris wondered if it was possible to shrink any further within herself.

The teacher pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of course. Well. We _were_ going to address this issue after lunch but it looks like we might have to move the schedule up." She placed a hand on Doris's shoulder and Doris started. "Mr. Clifford, Miss Jaboca, to the front office, please."

. . .

The front office was a little colder than the rest of the building, Doris noted, both in terms of temperature and in terms of metaphorical atmosphere. She stole occasional glances up from the floor while she waited in the uncomfortable wooden chair waiting for whoever she would be seeing.

Alex had already been beyond the door in front of her for a little while, speaking with someone who looked suspiciously like a knight.

Was she in trouble for just seeing something on her way to school? Or was this for making it a big deal in the lunchroom when she should have stayed quiet? Maybe she wasn't in trouble after all. Maybe this was just a debriefing of what she'd observed to give her a more complete story before she started spreading any misleading rumors. You could only really trust the truth of a knight, or so teachers and media insisted.

She found herself wishing that the heat would kick on while she waited.

The door clicked open and Alex Clifford walked out, looking sheepish. He walked past her to talk to the secretary, probably to ask for a hall pass to return to class. Before Doris could see if that was the case, she heard her name called and stood straight up. She felt stiff as she walked into the room.

"Doris Jaboca, is it? Your student ID." Doris quickly produced the card and gave it to the knight. He was taller than the knight from the hallway earlier. Older too. The man in the hall earlier looked like he could be a college student while this guy looked closer to her parents' ages. The knight smiled as he ran her student ID card through a scanner like it was a credit card. Some information came up on the tablet he was holding and he tilted the screen away so Doris couldn't see the display.

"Take a seat." The man continued to smile, but Doris couldn't find it reassuring. She sat, keeping her eyes forward. She waited.

Should she be saying something in her defense? Was she even allowed to talk yet or should she wait? Would looking as nervous as she felt be taken as a sign of guilt?

Was she in trouble?

Minutes passed as the knight looked over the screen. Finally, he looked up and met Doris's gaze.

"You recently turned ten, I see. A month ago. How was your birthday?"

"Huh? Uh, it was good. I had my favorite foods and got some books and drawing supplies..." Doris wasn't sure why her birthday mattered for a moment. Then she realized that turning ten meant something special until not too long ago. Was that what he was getting at?

"And your parents. What do they do?"

If he moved on to the next topic then she should too, Doris decided. "My mom works at Maple Pharmacy and my dad does records processing for a data conversion company. He handles medical records, I think."

"Do you know why you were called in here today?" Before she could answer he continued, "You witnessed an event this morning involving a number of knights and a Lacunosa Town citizen. You were identified as the girl who named the creature taken from the citizen's home."

Was she supposed to say something? Nod? Wait? She wished she'd been taught what to do if a knight asked her something other than the common advice of "cooperate."

"Sorry, sir," she said, more calmly than she expected of herself.

"What do you know about Mr. Bob Wilson?"

"He's an old man who lives in the house on the corner on the way to school. And he's the grandpa or uncle of one of the sixth graders, I think. I didn't talk to him much but I picked up walnuts from his lawn for some money in the fall." She paused, then added "I've never seen a pokémon around his house before today."

The knight's smile twitched at the edges of his lips. "Pokémon aren't supposed to be in town so it was very bad that Mr. Wilson had one. You know what it was called?"

"A… a joltik, I think."

"Now why do you know what a joltik is?"

Doris was ready as she could ever be for this, given she'd answered the same question in the cafeteria not long ago. "I remembered from when pokémon lived with humans. I'd only seen it in books or on TV shows but I'm not just going to just forget what its called. I've never seen a stegosaurus either and I can call one a stegosaurus."

The knight stifled a laugh. "You've got spunk, all right. Just call it a bug if you ever see one again, got it?"

"Why?" asked Doris.

"Look, we're going easy on you, kid. Just call it a bug in the future. You can go back to class now."

That was it? That little conversation was what she was scared of before? Doris began to feel tears bubbling up in her eyes. Why? Why now when everything was fine? Would crying now look suspicious and put her back in trouble all over again? She blinked the tears back and stood, reaching for the student ID card the knight was offering back to her.

"Oh, and just to warn you. 'Sorry' is something you say when you're admitting you've done something wrong. Don't apologize unless you're willing to accept that."

Doris froze with her fingers on the card. Her first instinct was to say "sorry" again but she didn't think that would be wise and searched her now blank brain for something better to say.

"You're not in trouble. I'm just giving you a warning." The knight's smile never wavered. Doris felt herself beginning to shake as she left to get a hall pass and return to class.

* * *

Surprise, this fic isn't dead! I just am really bad about updating consistently.


	4. Chapter 4: Offer

What do you know? I'm updating before half a year has passed! Let's get Chapter Four on the road, shall we?

* * *

Ryoku had just finished a private meeting with Ghetsis when he walked out into the halls of the Plasma Castle and discovered King N muttering to himself. Like the other sages, Ryoku had grown used to seeing the young king pacing like this. Standing in a castle didn't suit the king at all, Ryoku decided. He was about to speak up when King N stopped and stared at his reflection in one of the hall's windows.

"I know I don't have the answers, my friend. You would, I'm sure..."

"My lord?" Ryoku inquired. Was N referring to Zekrom or one of his other pokémon friends he'd released? He cleared his throat again to make sure N heard him.

"Oh, Ryoku. How are you doing?" asked N.

"I am fine, my lord. It's you I'm wondering about." N was distracted, and that was a bad thing. He was the King of Team Plasma, of New Unova. He was the face of a new region that badly needed order and unity. If he could assist N in focusing on New Unova's major problems – riots in Virbank, criticisms of the knights, disgruntled questions floating throughout Castelia – then he would indeed be fine.

N turned back to his reflection briefly, then back to Ryoku. "I just… I just don't understand why my formula is incomplete."

That answer was about as clear as the mud of the Moor of Icirrus.

"Can I help?" asked Ryoku. N frowned.

"I think I need to ask… someone in particular. Sorry."

"There's no need to apologize to me, my lord." Ryoku smiled reassuringly. It was a smile he was well-versed in giving the king. He wondered if it appeared genuine anymore. "Can I help you find the person you need to ask?"

N said something so quickly that Ryoku couldn't make it out, so he waited patiently for N to repeat himself.

"I need to see the Light Stone," the king said finally. "Which room it it kept in?"

…

Doris was sure by the end of the day that, once again, her nature as a worrier had gotten the better of her. Everything was normal, or as normal as things could be after seeing a man she sort-of knew arrested. Things would go back to their usual flow and her attempt at playing… what? detective? secret agent? in the hallway of the school that morning was really, really silly. She did her best to fight back the embarrassment of getting worked up over something that never actually involved her and wasn't actually a big deal.

Then she left the school building.

Her mom was waiting for her with the car. Home was so close she only ever needed a ride when the weather was bad or she had a doctor's appointment or something after school. The weather was cold but otherwise fine, and anyway her mom was supposed to still be at work for the next few hours. She studied her mom's face for a moment. She could tell she was relieved to see her.

Doris hurried over to the car.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Dory," said her mom. "I just figured it would be nice to give you a ride since it's cold out."

"Don't you still have work?" asked Doris as she climbed into the passenger seat and dumped her backpack on the car floor.

"I have some time off I can use." She put the car into reverse and backed out of the parking space.

"So… uh… is that all?" asked Doris.

"No," her mom admitted. "I had… an interesting day. A pair of knights showed up at the pharmacy wanting to talk to me. I'm okay, don't worry. It's just… they came by because they wanted to talk about…"

"About me?" Doris guessed. Her mom nodded.

"You're not in trouble," she reassured her daughter. "Just… you're turning my hair gray."

Doris and her mom both chuckled at this. Her mom's hair had been gray for a few years already. It wasn't much, but it was enough to break the tension for a spell. Doris made a mental note about humor being good for stress.

"I saw Mr. Wilson get arrested on my way to school. He had a jol – a bug pokémon in his house. I happened to say what it was named so I was called into the office so they could tell me… not to do that."

"I see." Her mom turned the car around a corner.

"Is it bad to say pokémons' names?"

"It shouldn't be but… they're trying to cut down on stuff like that." Her mom's smile faded.

"Why?" asked Doris, slightly alarmed. There was no need to ask who "they" were.

"Well… Maybe the best way to put this is that knowledge is a type of power." Her mom looked like she was carefully considering what to say next. "So if you know something it can lead you to act differently. Like, if it's just a bug you leave it alone. But if it's something more… interesting you might want to try to get one for yourself. And they want pokémon left alone."

Doris couldn't help but think there was more to it than that but she pushed speculative thoughts out of her mind to ask another question.

"Why did Mr. Wilson have a pokémon?"

"I don't know. I'm not even sure he did." She turned the car down Acorn Street and pulled into their driveway. She turned off the car but made no move leave it. "He… he tends to be very critical of Team Plasma and the knights in his editorials and they've tried to get him on other things. I don't know so don't go saying this like it's fact. Or _at all_. But I wonder if… if the pokémon got into his house by other means and they took advantage of it."

 _Or they planted it_ , thought Doris. She squirmed in her seat. The knights her family talked about and the knights the school and her classmates talked about were always so different. She noticed her mom still had made no attempt to leave the car. The heat was fading.

"Did the knight at school ask you anything about Aunt Laura?"

"No. Why? Is she okay?" Aunt Laura was a journalist who'd moved to Kalos about four years ago. Why would the knights have anything to ask about her?

"She's okay. She worked on the same paper as Mr. Wilson before she moved to Striaton City and worked there, so I wondered. But she's in Kalos now so I doubt they'd care about that connection." Her mom finally opened the car door. "It's getting cold in here and you've got homework to do. Time to go inside."

Doris followed suit. Her mom hugged her just after entering the house. It was a strange mixture of comforting and unsettling, Doris thought. Sort of like how life was in general now. At school she was always uncomfortable but everything was fine and she was just overreacting to everything, at home she felt justified in her worries even though she was in the safest place there was. It was like everything was normal but also dangerous and more often than not she just felt lost and confused.

Homework. It wasn't fun but at least it would distract her.

…

The smell of dinner cooking while the television droned on was a familiar sensation to Doris. Her homework was finished and she took occasional breaks from doodling cartoon heroes to glance at the news her parents were watching. A press conference had been held by one of the sages regarding some court decision or other. While her parents watched with interest, Doris just felt annoyed that Ghetsis never seemed to actually answer the same questions that had been asked.

Just seconds after her dad had returned from the kitchen after stirring the spaghetti sauce, the phone rang. He sighed and walked back into the room he'd just left while Doris debated which shade of blue pencil best matched a character's hair.

"Oh no," said her dad. His tone of voice made Doris pay attention.

The conversation lasted a little longer before ending with "Yes, I understand. We'll be sure to be careful."

 _Careful?_

Doris's father hung up the phone and took a deep breath before coming back to the living room.

"Mr. Wilson is dead," her father said at last.

"Dead?" asked her mom. He nodded.

"They told his family he had a heart attack." Doris looked from one parent to the other. Both looked similarly pale, tense, and grim.

" _They told_..." Doris repeated. She noticed her mom shoot her dad a warning look.

"He was in the knights' custody so they're the ones who told his family what happened." Her father was holding something back. Before she could properly process the unspoken implication, three loud knocks sounded from the front door.

Everyone fell silent for a moment. It was already dark out. No one went out after dark in Lacunosa. Whoever was at the door knocked again.

"Coming!" called Doris's mom. She opened the door.

"Good evening, Mrs. Jaboca," said a voice. "May we come in? We need to discuss your daughter." The speaker was one of two knights. Doris recognized him as the man who had spoken with her in the office earlier.

"Oh. Of course." She looked back into the living room with an expression Doris couldn't quite place. Doris felt her father move closer to her.

Doris's head raced with thoughts – did the knights kill Mr. Wilson? What did they want with her now? Were her parents in danger because of her? Was she in danger right now? Could she run if she needed to? What about her parents? She was a kid, and logic told her that if she was in trouble, her parents would likely be blamed for her behavior. She thought about the floorplan of the house. She would know it better than the knights would. She could fake a left down the hallway but head to the bathroom instead and maybe jimmy the window open to get outside… but would her parents run with her? Would waiting to see what they wanted from her cost her the chance to get away?

She felt her dad's hand on her shoulder. _Calm down_ , she thought. He wanted her to stay put and he was an adult who certainly could read the situation better. The knights walked in through the front hallway and gestured for the family to sit down. Doris studied them. The older man from school seemed like the senior knight, taking the lead in the situation. She realized she hadn't gotten his name before. The other knight was a woman Doris thought might have been the one to take the joltik from Mr. Wilson's house. She wore her dark hair in a long ponytail and fiddled with something in her pocket.

Doris's mom picked up the remote control and turned off the TV.

"What brings you here this evening?" she asked as though the knights were old friends who unexpectedly dropped in from out of town.

"Some business, I'm afraid," said the man. "Nothing serious, as long as we nip things in the bud." Doris squirmed.

"A less ominous and more frank explanation might be better, Rick." suggested the woman. Doris judged her to be about college-age, like the knight from the school hallway.

The man nodded. "I'm Richard Woodard and my partner is Eva Cornn. We're here to discuss keeping your daughter out of trouble."

"But I didn't do anything!" Doris blurted out. "I just knew what a pokémon was called!" She closed her eyes and tried not to think about how unwise her outburst was. It was just unfair to be in trouble for that, darn it. And if Mr. Wilson really had been killed…

"You're the type that could get into very serious trouble. Stubborn. Smart but foolish," said Rick Woodard. "We want to prevent that from happening so you can be a happy, contributing member of society." He indicated that everyone should sit and the knights took a pair of chairs in the living room while Doris and her family sat on the couch, Doris in the middle.

Doris tried to sort out being called smart and foolish at the same time. Her parents both remained calm but she could feel their tension through a hand on each shoulder.

"Mr. and Mrs. Jaboca, we're here to enroll your daughter in the PAGE program." On the cue from Woodard, Eva Cornn pulled a pamphlet from her bag. The word PAGE was written on it in white letters outlined in blue and there were four pictures of kids and knights smiling at the camera together.

"PAGE stands for Pro-Active Guidance and Engagement," said Cornn. "We find kids who have trouble adjusting to New Unova and act as their councilors. We teach them. Essentially, we train them to become knights."

Doris wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't that. For a moment, no one in the Jaboca family spoke. Then Doris's mom cleared her throat.

"Is this really necessary?" she asked. "I don't really want Dory to –"

"According to her teachers, Doris has exhibited some troubling behavior before today," interrupted Woodard.

"What are you talking about? I don't get in trouble at school!" Doris protested. Unless they knew about her attempt to play ninja she couldn't think of anything she'd done that would be objectionable, and that was today, not before it.

Woodard cleared his throat and grunted and Doris immediately regretted her interruption. She felt cold and tensed up. She wanted to run but forced herself to be still.

If what she'd inferred from the phone call was correct, she could very well have just gotten herself and her parents killed.

After too long, Woodard spoke again. "Her teachers report that Doris is often alone during recess rather than playing with the other children like she should. She also –"

It was her dad's turn to interrupt. "You're saying she's in trouble because the other kids exclude her from their games?!" His face was red and his breath heavy.

"Dory has told us about wanting to play games with the other kids. They refuse to let her join, so she plays alone," her mom added.

Doris curled in on herself, thinking of a time when she worked up the nerve to ask to play tag with her classmates. They had all immediately stopped playing tag and hurried to the blacktop for a game of kickball they knew she was bad at and wouldn't want to join. Tears welled in her eyes, but she found herself surprised that they weren't her usual tears of sadness at being excluded or fear of 'what ifs', but anger. This wasn't fair. She tried to get along with the other kids and they laughed in her face or left her alone and confused about what she did wrong. Now she was in trouble with the knights because of whatever was wrong with her that she could never figure out and she began to wonder if this might not be her fault after all.

"–ris has also frequently asked to skip recess in the nurse's office, indicating further asocial tendencies."

It was her fault for getting stomach aches when thinking of how she'd spend another recess on the outside looking in? They were real stomach aches, darn it! Doris balled her hands into fists and her sobs became audible.

 _Stop it_ , she told her tears. She cried so easily and she hated it. Her tears didn't listen. Her mom rubbed her back and she cried more from the relief of a reassuring touch.

"My daughter is on your watch list because her classmates are bullying bastards?! What the hell?!" her dad shouted. It didn't seem like the right time to suggest that he put some coins into the swear jar.

Woodard continued, unperturbed. "She also produced… _this_." He nodded to Cornn and she took out a small stack of stapled pages of lined paper. Doris looked up and recognized her own beginner cursive writing on the front.

"This is a writing assignment for her English lessons. It contains some concerning themes," said Cornn. Doris blinked and stopped crying for a moment. What on Earth had she written that would be "concerning" anyway? The most recent project they'd done in English class was just writing short stories.

"What themes?" asked her mom.

"Animals don't talk." Cornn looked straight at Doris as she spoke.

"What?!" asked Doris. That was it?

"Animals don't talk. You're certainly old enough to know that."

"Wha… of course I know that! It was a short story. A made up one. Fiction!" Doris looked at her equally baffled parents.

"They do not possess magic powers either," Cornn continued.

"And gorgeous elf ladies waiting to be rescued from towers don't exist either. One of my classmates wrote about that. Is he in trouble too?"

"Magical animals are dangerously close to writing about pokémon, Miss Jacoba. The piece suggests you desire pokémon," said Cornn.

"Not really, no," protested Doris. "I just wrote about a girl who got lost and found a talking fox that helped her get home. How does that mean I want to catch pokémon?"

"The fox displayed abilities similar to a certain species of pokémon as well," Woodard said. He was now addressing her parents. "It could transform itself into different appearances."

Doris winced. Now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure she had heard of a fox pokémon that could do that. Zor-something-or-other.

"Sh-shapeshifting just seemed cool," said Doris in self-defense. Crap. She'd written about a pokémon by accident. "And anyway, pokémon don't talk, right? It was just a weird, magic fox because it seemed fun."

"Dory didn't mean to write about a pokémon. She probably remembered one without realizing it," said her dad.

"Intentional or not, the similarity is enough to raise concerns. Combined with her knowledge of the bug pokémon this morning, it paints a picture we cannot ignore," said Woodard.

"We searched your house earlier while you were at work and school and didn't find anything suspicious," said Cornn.

"You what?!" asked both of Doris's parents at once.

"Since nothing alarming was discovered, we decided it was best to simply take Doris under our wing to make sure she stays on the right path," Cornn continued.

"You understand, of course, that it would not be in your best interests to refuse the opportunity," said Woodard. "And being in the PAGE program has a number of benefits as well. It's quite possible Doris will excel in the program and earn scholarships. She could even be chosen to become a knight herself." He pulled out a form that was already filled out aside from signatures. "You just have to sign here."

"We understand if you want to read over everything first, but refusal really isn't a good option here," said Cornn. "There won't even be much difference to her life. She'll just have extra lessons with me once a week." For the first time since the knights had arrived, Cornn smiled. For just a second Doris felt reassured. Then she remembered Mr. Wilson. What would happen if they refused?

"I-I'll do it," said Doris.

"That's for your parents to decide, Miss Jaboca," said Woodard.

Doris looked at her mom and dad. They were adults. They would know how to handle this, right? Her mom was reading the paperwork carefully while her dad flipped impatiently through the PAGE brochure.

"You searched our house without us knowing while we weren't here," said her dad, struggling to keep his voice even.

"Yes. We found nothing of interest, and of course, you had nothing to hide," said Cornn. She said it like it was a simple, obvious fact.

Doris's mom bit her lip and took a pen off the side table.

"Fine." She scribbled her name on the line and handed the paperwork to her husband. Doris felt herself shrinking into the couch. Her father breathed hard and he read the form, but eventually signed it as well.

"Very good," said Woodard. "Eva will meet your daughter at school after her classes let out on Thursday." He and Cornn stood and Woodard offered a handshake to Doris's dad. Mr. Jaboca didn't take him up on it.

"Have an excellent evening," said Cornn. The knights left. Doris stared out at the dark sky for a second before her mom closed the door. The knights apparently weren't afraid of the monster that was supposed to come out at night.

Then Doris cried again. She couldn't help herself this time. The knights were gone and the decision was made. There was no immediate danger anymore. She cried more because she was mad at herself for crying.

"It'll be okay," said her mom. She hugged Doris and rubbed her back. That just made Doris feel worse. She wanted it to help her feel better so she sobbed again. What was wrong with her? Why was she like this?

"I-I'm – I'm sorry," Doris squeezed out between gulps of air and tears. "I didn't – I'm – I didn't mean to –"

"You didn't do anything wrong. Those bastards are just throwing their weight around," said her dad.

"Petty power is the worst kind," said her mom, hugging her tighter. "But we'll be okay."

"I don – don't want to be a knight. They're _not_ the good guys. They killed Mr. Wilson, didn't they?"

Her parents looked at each other. Doris tried to pull away from her mom's embrace to read their expressions.

"We don't know that for certain…" started her dad.

"Doris. It will be okay. Listen to Miss Cornn when you have to, but stay…" Her mom paused to find the right words. "Stay yourself. Stay kind and aware. If they want you to do something bad, refuse. Don't worry about us. I don't think it'll come to it, so just stay you. It. Will. Be. Okay."

 _Beep, beep, beep_ , sounded the timer from the kitchen. Doris's mom released her embrace and pulled back to smile at her. "The spaghetti's ready. I hope this didn't ruin your appetite." Doris's dad stepped into the kitchen to mix the pasta with the meat sauce. Doris could hear him muttering under his breath as he stirred. Some of the sauce had burned onto the pan.

Dinner was as normal as it could be, Doris decided. She initially picked at her food but managed to finish it. Conversation turned to every topic other than the knights and the new activity she'd have to deal with in two days. She laughed and made a joke or two.

After dinner she and her parents sat in the living room longer than they usually would. They talked. They were silent. They talked again. It would be okay.

…

Faster! _Faster!_ She flapped her arms with as much force as she could summon. She needed to find somewhere safe to hide. The chilly air crept closer, as did something… big. She didn't dare turn to see what it was.

She dodged a tree branch and turned hard to the right. There were buildings ahead. Familiar buildings, just seen from above. The school, her house, the police station, the community center… surely one of these places would be safe. She soared over the bridge by Mr. Wilson's house. It must be unoccupied now, she thought, as no lights shone from inside. Was there a way in?

She flailed her arms in the air hard to stay aloft as she scoped out the house. A hole in the roof. That would do it. She dived inside and searched the attic for a good place to rest. Boxes upon boxes covered in old sheets and dusty webs greeted her. She swooped down between two large crates and held her breath. Cold. It was so cold. Something large and dangerous flew through the dark.

…

Doris's eyes shot open and she pulled her sheet tighter around her. It took a second to realize she'd just had a nightmare. It was easy enough for her to figure out why her nightmare had involved feeling cold; some of her covers had fallen onto the floor while she slept. She turned to her alarm clock.

2:16 am.

Doris groaned and retrieved her covers. It didn't take much analysis to understand why her dream involved trying to escape something either.

 _Mom and Dad say things will be okay_ , Doris told herself. _They're usually right. I get worried about everything but it turns out to be nothing. It'll end up all right._

A beam of streetlight poked through the curtains. Even Lacunosa Town, where people never went out at night, had streetlights. It was funny, in a way. She pulled the curtain aside to look out. It was lightly snowing. The first snowfall of the season. Doris felt her shoulders fall and she sat on the floor to watch the snow. It reminded her that the holidays would be soon and she'd get two weeks away from school in a little while. She wrapped the covers around her and let herself be hypnotized by the dusty flakes lit by the streetlamp.

 _It'll be okay._

Her eyes wandered and she caught sight of the top of the wall keeping the monster from the Giant Chasm out of Lacunosa Town.

She felt trapped.


End file.
